libraries

In its first summer in operation, a western Massachusetts city’s bookmobile has been a big success. Library advocates hope the service offered in Chicopee will inspire other communities to put libraries on wheels.

The Chicopee Public Library Bookmobile, which began a biweekly schedule in late June of two 90- minute stops per day that will end the Friday before Labor Day, is on course to exceed 2,000 customers who checked out close to 1,300 items.

Mayor Richard Kos, who championed the creation of a bookmobile, said it was a “home run.”

Libraries today are more important than ever. More than just book repositories, libraries can become a defense against some of the most crucial challenges of our age: unequal access to education, jobs, and information.

In BiblioTech, John Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. And libraries, which play a crucial role in making these skills and information available, are at risk.

In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible—by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online.

There was a time when the public library was the place to take out books, do some studying, or research through spools of microfilm. You can still take out a book, but libraries have changed with the times. This is National Library Week, a time to speak with the president-elect of the American Library Association, Sari Feldman.

The city council in Springfield Massachusetts has taken steps that will lead to the reopening of three branch libraries that closed because of budget cuts. But it is a stopgap measure that has library supporters looking for long term funding solutions. WAMC”s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.

The city of Springfield Massachusetts will enter a new fiscal year this Sunday, July 1st, with a budget that officials describe as “ austere” and “ bare-bones”. It is also a budget that remains out of balance, as we hear from WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief, Paul Tuthill..

The $551.8 million dollar budget will cut more than 100 city jobs, cause three library branches to close, take a fire department ladder truck out of service, and result in reduced repairs and maintenance of streets, sidewalks and parks.

Three branch libraries are scheduled to close at the end of this week in Springfield Massachusetts because of budget cuts. Library advocates have mobilized to try to stop the closures. WAMC”s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.

About 50 people held a rally outside the East Forest Park library branch to protest plans to close it.